Practice keyboard



' Feb. 23, 1937. c. ENGEL PRACTICE KEYBOARD Filed March 27, 1935 INVENTOR Caz-Z Eiyei BY mus Patented Feb. 23, 1937 2,072,071

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFlCE PRACTICE KEYBOARD Carl Engel, New York, N. Y., assignor to G. Schirmer, Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application March 27, 1935, Serial No. 13,266

Claims. (Cl. 84467) This invention relates to a practice keyboard ployed in the construction of the member I, the and more particularly to such a device for use in upper surface of which is scored at regular ininstructing students in the art of piano playing. tervals with parallel grooves 3 of predetermined An object of the invention is to provide a light depth, extending all the way across the said mem- 5 and durable practice keyboard of simple and inher from front to back. These grooves are spaced 5 expensive construction. to provide keys of desired width and give both A further object is to provide an inexpensive visual and touch indication of the positions of and practical method of constructing a practice the respective keys.

keyboard having flat white keys and elevated In order to strengthen the member I and ri lO black keys, with the flat keys separated one from 1y maintain it in a fiat condition, there is proanother by slots. vided a molding strip 5, rabbeted as at 6, and

A further object is to provide simple and efsecured to the rear edge of t e member I by fective means for supporting musical instruction means of nails. This molding, co-extensive in cards or charts in convenient relation to the length with the member I, prevents the latter is keyboard. from warping or bending transversely. Warping Other objects will be in part obvious and in in the direction of the length of the member I part pointed out hereinafter. is prevented by means of the black keys 8, which The invention accordingly consists in the feaare prop positioned With respect 0 the mtures of construction, combination of elements, her and r ec ed th by m ans of nail and arrangement of parts as will be exemplified II]. It Will be, Of course, understood that screws 20 in the structure to be hereinafter described and or even glu may vantageously be s d in e the scope of the application of which ill be ininstances for joining the members 5 and 8 to the dicated in the following claims. fiat key member I.

In the accompanying drawing, in which is The members 8 conform in shape to the black shown a preferred embodiment of the invention, ey o a e a pi o y oa d and both W ite Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the keyand black keys y be p p d in ac ordboard with a musical notation instruction card Mice with c p d ey oa d Standards. The

supported thereby; length of the keyboard will be determined by the Fig, 2 is a, to plan view of a portion f th number of octaves or keys found most desirable keyboard; for practice purposes. 30

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the said portion Th m di g 5 s v a to define the l h of the keyboard, nd of the white keys and prevents the students Fig. 4 is a cross-section taken on line 4-4 of fingers from moving too far toward the rear edge Fig. 3. of the keyboard. Molding 5 also provides em- Similar reference characters refer to similar i nt means f r hol in a musi chart or card in 35 parts throughout the several views of the drawprop position before the y s o t Studenting. The means employed is a slot I I extending length- Practice keyboards have been known heretowise of the member 5 and downward from, the fore. Some such keyboards have been provided upper surface of said member to any desired with black keys raised above the surface of the depth. From bottom to top this slot slopes rear- 40 white, as is customary with actual piano keyward relatively to the keyboard, so that a pracboards, and still others have been constructed tice card standing therein will be supported in a with depressions located between the white keys plane substantially normal to the students line to enable the student to determine the position of vision, thus facilitating easy reading of the of the keys by the sense of touch as well as by musical notation appearing on the card. The 45 sight. These features are all included in the whole keyboard is preferably manufactured from present keyboard, which differs from known keyhard close-grained wood, but other materials such boards of like nature by reason of its specific as a suitable composition, or even cardboard may features of construction. Referring to the drawbe employed. In process of manufacture, the

5 ing it will be seen that the keyboard comprises locations of the saw cuts 3 and black keys 8 may a fiat unitary member I of a length sufficient to be determined by the use of a jig and the slot II provide the desired number of white keys 2, the may be formed by holding the molding member at width of the said member I being slightly greatthe desired angle and running a circular saw the er than the effective length of the white keys. full length thereof. The fiat members I and Preferably a thin board of hard wood is emmolding members 8 are preferably first produced 55 ,in board or other standard lengths, and then cut in shorter lengths as required. The several parts of the keyboard may be appropriately painted or enameled prior to assembly, the coating of the members I and 5 being white; that of the members 8 black.

In Fig. 1, 12 represents a chart adapted for use with the present keyboard. This chart, made of stiff cardboard, has printed upon its surface a pair of bracketed staves having respectively the treble and bass clef designations. In relation to these staves is shown an arrangement of notes representing the key of C major ascending in four octaves, with the notes having the same spacing as the keys of the practice keyboard. In use, this chart is inserted in the slot l I, as shown, thus insuring the convenient positioning of the chart in normal relation to the line of vision of the student. It will be noted that the chart places middle 0 in the center opposite the middle C of the practice keyboard; and correspondingly each note of the four diatonic octaves occupies a position in substantial alignment with the appropriate key of the keyboard. Thus this combination of chart and keyboard is of great benefit to beginners.

It will be understood that other charts may be substituted for the C major chart disclosed, and where charts of the chromatic or harmonic scales are used the notes representing sharps and flats may conveniently be placed in substantial alignment with the appropriate black keys of the keyboard.

It will be seen that there is provided a construction of an essentially practical nature in which the several objects of this invention are attained.

As many possible embodiments may be made of the above invention without departing from the scope thereof, it is to be understood that all mat- Iter herein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawing is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. A practice keyboard comprising, in combination, a long flat member having keys outlined thereon by a plurality of transversely extending scores cut in the surface thereof, a molding strip formed to engage the rear edge and a portion of the upper surface of said member and secured along the rear edge thereof, and a plurality of,

other keys in the form of blocks disposed in appropriate relation to said first keys and secured upon said flat member with an end of each block in substantial contact with the surface of said molding strip.

2. A practice keyboard comprising, in combination, a long fiat member having keys outlined thereon by a plurality of transversely extending scores cut in the surface thereof, a molding strip secured to said member along the rear edge thereof, and a plurality of other keys in the form of blocks disposed in appropriate relation to said first keys and secured upon said flat member with an end of each block in substantial contact with the surface of said molding strip, said molding strip being formed with a, slot adapted to support a music chart in convenient relation to the keyboard.

3. In a practice: keyboard, in combination, a long fiat board having the white keys of a piano keyboard outlined thereon by scoring the upper surface of the board with transverse saw cuts, a plurality of black key members disposed in appropriate relation to said white keys and fastened to said board, and means secured along the rear edge of said board as a strengthening member and slotted to provide support for charts of musical notation.

4. In a practice keyboard, in combination, a long flat member having the white keys of a piano keyboard outlined thereon, a plurality of other members secured to said member in appropriate relation to said White keys to simulate the raised black keys of a piano, and a rigid binding strip secured along the edge of said flat member rearwardly of said other members and provided with a backward sloping slot for supporting practice charts.

5. A practice keyboard comprising, in com,- bination, a long flat member having upon its upper surface a representation of the black and White keys of a piano keyboard, and means for supporting a music chart in convenient relation to said keyboard comprising a molding strip slotted to receive an edge of such chart and secured to said flat member at the rear edge thereof.

CARL ENGEL. 

